The invention relates to a self-cleaning centrifugal separator with automatic control, in which a small portion of the specifically heavier liquid component is taken from the solids chamber at a point outside of the plate stack and delivered through one or more passages to a centrally disposed control chamber with which there is communicated a device which responds to a diminution or cessation of the incoming flow of liquid by transmitting to a control apparatus the starting pulse for the discharge of the solids and in which the main flow of the specifically heavier liquid is carried away in any desired manner.
A clarifying centrifuge having a control system of this kind is described in German Pat. No. 1,145,100. Clarifying centrifuges are also known in which a sensing liquid is delivered from a central control chamber through one or more passages into the solids chamber in order to sense the level of the solids; see, for example, German Pat. No. 1,173,030.
In both types of centrifuge, the covering of the tubule orifices by solids brings about a displacement of the free liquid level in the central control chamber, whereupon the liquid pressure acting upon the tubule orifices changes and can result in a loss of the seal created by the solids.
To avoid this disadvantage the apparatus described in German Pat. No. 1,227,757 provides for a momentary interruption of the liquid flow, which in that case is an outward flow, in order to give the separated solids time to consolidate into a cohesive layer. However, this does not have any effect on the amount of pressure acting on the plug formed by the solids.